1. Technical Field
Embodiments disclosed herein are related to systems and methods for enhancing user interaction with online content. In particular, embodiments disclosed herein are related to displaying an enhanced cursor-like content selection area, or “Smart Spot”, that allows users to automatically execute predefined actions on the selected content.
2. Related Art
Electronic devices, particularly computers, have become part of the daily lives of many people such that interfacing with content on a computer has become as familiar to people as turning the pages of a book. People understand the basic mechanics of selecting items displayed on a screen by moving a cursor to an item to be selected. People also understand that there are certain predefined actions can occur by pressing certain buttons or keys on the selected item. For example, a single mouse click, such as a left button click, will often select the item on which the cursor is positioned. A double left click may execute a program associated with the item on which the cursor is positioned. A right mouse button click (or command + click for Macintosh™ users) will open a menu of possible actions to perform on the item on which the cursor is positioned. These actions have become very familiar to users when interacting with desktop and laptop computers, and other devices that use human interface devices (HID) such as mice and trackballs.
As electronic devices become smaller and mobile, one of the difficulties has been trying to replicate the interaction users have become used to on desktop and laptop computers with HIDs such as mice and trackballs. Mobile devices that use a touch screen interface have been able to mimic the familiar point and click interface from desktop and laptop computers with a stylus or user finger acting as the “point” and the tapping of the screen at a certain location acting as the “click”. However, this method of interfacing with content displayed on a screen of a mobile device is limited in the actions that can be performed by the act of tapping on the screen. The act of tapping the screen typically selects the tapped object, which may then follow a hyperlink or execute an application represented by the object. Certain mobile devices include framework which may bring up a menu of options when the tap is held on the screen for a predetermined amount of time. However, this is often unintuitive to a user and may result in the selection or execution of the object being tapped because the user did not hold the tap for the predetermined amount of time. In addition, navigating the displayed menus for the desired action takes additional actions and time which can be burdensome to the user.
Moreover, when viewing content, such as web pages and other content displaying text to the user on a mobile device, it can be difficult to select or highlight portions of the web page or text. For example, users are accustomed to be able to easily select portions of text displayed by a desktop or laptop computer by highlighting the text using the HID. Users are used to being able to perform actions on the selected text, such as cut and paste. On a mobile device having a touch screen, the functionality for selecting text or other portions of the displayed web page are not intuitive and can be difficult, particularly on mobile devices having a very small display area, such as a mobile phone. Moreover, once the text or other portions of the displayed web page are selected, the actions that can be performed on the selection are limited to copy and paste functionality.
Similarly, when browsing the internet using a mobile device, users may have difficulty in selecting a hyperlink or anchor on a displayed web page. This is particularly true if the mobile device has a small display area, such as on a mobile phone. When numerous anchors or hyperlinks are displayed by the mobile device, a user often accidentally selects the unintended anchor or hyperlink, which causes the user to have to go back to the previous page and try to select the correct anchor or hyperlink again. Or, the user will have to zoom into the displayed webpage to select the correct anchor or hyperlink and then zoom back out again once the desired content is displayed. Despite the many capabilities that many modern mobile devices have, users are unable or reluctant to take full advantage of these capabilities due to issues interacting with the displayed information, such as have been described here.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that provides an enhanced user interaction with displayed content, particularly content displayed on mobile devices and touchscreen devices.